So Pornhub, one of the biggest providers of porn on the internet, has just released their stats for 2015, a year in review so to speak. And it was most certainly the year that Pornhubs stats went even more weird. For us, it comes as no surprise that the world watched a lot of porn last year! Now don’t rush to your computers or smart devices to look at Pornhub’s report, as their website is full of plenty of porn. Most people who’ve looked at porn on the internet will have come across their site at some stage. I certainly was a frequent visitor during my struggle with pornography.

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Last year Pornhub alone streamed 75GB of data a second, enough to fill the storage of around 175 million iPhones around the world. 41% of their traffic came from the USA, with the UK in a close second, India bumping Canada to 4 and Australia ranked at no. 7 (up from 8). The average length for a visit to Pornhub was 9 minutes and 20 seconds, which they are proudly saying is “an indicator that most people are not ‘addicted’ in a way that they spend all of their time on porn, or doing little else with their time.” I know that’s not true! As a porn user for many years, I would go from website to website during my viewing session. I wouldn’t stay on one site for very long at all, constantly visiting new sites to find what I wanted.

Interestingly Mindgeek, the owners of Pornhub, run 8 of the top 10 porn websites in the world[1], produce porn in over 5 owned studios[2], and run some of Playboy’s ‘other’ websites (not the “no nudity” playboy.com one)[3]. So most likely some of these people who are ‘not addicted’ and spending an average of 9 minutes and 20 seconds on the Pornhub website, are jumping across to one of the other websites that Mindgeek own or manage.

 

So who’s doing the most viewing?

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Americans and Australians are in the top 3 countries that spend the most time on Pornhub’s website at 9 minutes 51seconds and 9 minutes and 36 seconds respectively. In the USA the southern states, regarded as having more more religious conservatism, had longer viewing sessions than those up north. The most popular times to jump on the Pornhub websites was between 9pm and 1am. No surprises there. I certainly did most of my viewing during those times when I was hooked.

 

And what are people looking for?

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From this it’s pretty obvious that the top searched term on Pornhub’s website was ‘Lesbian.’ ‘Step Mum and Son’ jumped 71 places to number 3, and ‘Celebrity Sex Tape’ jumped a huge 71 places to become number 15. This certainly proves that anything taboo is very popular, which makes sense. Novelty generates an adrenaline rush that makes the experience of viewing feel better and more exciting. Mix that with the dopamine released in the brain while on the hunt for the perfect shot, and you’re on your way to pathological learning, a.k.a. addiction[4].

Female viewing is up on the Pornhub site and now sits at 24% of all visitors, proving that the female use of porn is slowly increasing which is exactly why we offer help to both men and women on our website.  Of course we certainly don’t agree with the Pornhub’s congratulations to the women of the world when they say “Well done ladies!” We absolutely don’t want this number to keep on increasing and say “Well don’t ladies!” there’s so much better out there for you J

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By far, smartphones are now the most popular devices for porn viewing. Up to 53% from 45% the previous year. Which is why we warn parents that they must be super careful about giving these devices to their children. It’s also why we’ve made our new website super awesome on smart devices. We’d rather you come here on your smartphone for some help and advice, instead of logging onto a porn website! Actually we’d love it J

Also for parents specifically, there’s also plenty of traffic arriving at Pornhub’s website site via Game Consoles, with the Playstation and Xbox being the main contenders. So you need to be really careful about what devices your kids are using and what they can do on them. This is why we say you must discuss these things with your children earlier, rather than later, after they’ve come across the stuff.

So all in all, even though we are absolutely not supporters of Pornhub here at Guilty Pleasure, their data does present interesting insight into the world of porn and how we are using it! It’s scary to think of the various kinds of depravity, abuse and violence that are out there, along with things that the site lists under the guise of ‘amateur’ and ‘homemade.’ It’s clear that porn is changing and it’s even clearer that porn is changing to meet our needs and desires. All guided by the careful logging of data and searches that these porn websites do to give us exactly what we ‘want.’

Just by visiting this website and others like it, we are generating the traffic which helps them sell to advertisers, get better metrics on the world and ultimately create demand for more and more content.

If you are struggling with porn or know someone who is, we’d love to help you. Jump onto our help page or send us a message and we’d love to be of support. The world of porn can be dark, depressing and damn right addictive. As a former porn addict I can tell you there’s so many more amazing things in life than porn and getting it out of your life will change you forever… for the good!

Keep up the great work. Share this article and use the hashtag #iamred. Find out what saying #iamred actually means.

[1] Auerbach, David. “There Is A Porn Monopoly, And Its Name Is Mindgeek”. Slate Magazine. N.p., 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.

[2] “Why Are Porn Perfomers Scared to Talk About Internet Piracy?”. TorrentFreak. 13 April 2014. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.

[3] Thomsen, Michael. “Forbes Welcome”. Forbes.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.

[4] Wilson, Gary. “Ominous News For Porn Users: Internet Addiction Atrophies Brains | Your Brain On Porn”. Yourbrainonporn.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.